Mujaddara is a very popular dish throughout the Middle East and in its simplest version it only has three ingredients: rice, lentils and caramelized onions. For this reason, it has always been considered "poor" food, although mujaddara is currently consumed by all social classes.
There are many variations of the recipe. There are those that use rice while others substitute it for bulgur. It is also common for each country in the area to use the type of lentil available, the most common being orange and brown.
It is always served dry accompanied, if desired, by garlic-flavoured yogurt.
It is very easy to do and very cheap. The following preparation is exactly the same as the way they are prepared in the Middle East
INGREDIENTS (4 people)
- 2 cups (200 ml each) basmati rice (long grain)
- 2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup of brown lentils
- 2 large red (sweet) onions
- 1 pinch of sugar (optional)
- Salt
- Black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
- Optional: 2 cloves of garlic and 200 grams of Greek yogurt
If the lentils are not "fast" type we soak them in water overnight.
First of all, we are going to wash the lentils under the tap and put them in a pot with cold water. We place the pan on the fire at medium power and let them cook for half an hour.
While we cook the lentils we are going to prepare the rice in the Arab/Persian style. First, pour it into a bowl with plenty of water and stir. When the water becomes cloudy, we empty it by decantation and add more water. We do this operation twice more until the water is quite clean, a sign that the rice has lost its starch. Remove the rice and drain it.
In a saucepan, pour the two cups (400 ml) of chicken or vegetable broth, the rice and the lentils that we have cooked. Add a little salt if the broth does not have. Let it cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes (the liquid will be consumed almost entirely).
While lentils and rice are being made at the same time, we are going to make the caramelized onion.
Cut the onions into julienne strips and add them to a frying pan with a generous splash of oil. Over low heat, poach the onions so that they caramelize. If we want to speed up the process we add a pinch of sugar. With the time it takes to cook the lentils and the rice, it will be enough to caramelize the onion. If we want them crispy, we raise the heat towards the end.
Check that the legume and rice are tender and remove from the heat. We have the corresponding portion on each plate and on top of it we have the caramelized onion.
If we want to serve the mujaddara with yogurt, we simply crush two cloves of garlic and mix them with the yogurt to give it flavor, apart from a pinch of salt. When we are going to serve the food we add a ladle of yogurt to each plate, previously removing the garlic.
It couldn't be simpler, cheaper and more nutritious.